Chapter 7 #2
Of course, the good, the bad, and the uncertain all came in the same jumbled package, and when Milo glanced down and realized he was holding Rowan’s hands, he snatched them back with a muttered, “I’m sorry!
I maybe got… too excited. What about your day, Rowan?
” He looked up with a curious bat of his long eyelashes. “You were going to tell me something?”
At first, Rowan could only blink mutely back at Milo, but then he remembered—the excitement he had felt when he got home, that he had felt all day, for entirely different reasons than a bot coming alive.
“Oh my god. The surge protector. Director Andreas is interested in my research after learning you survived the lightning strike.”
“That is wonderful! Isn’t it?”
“He’s going to want to see you, to examine you.”
“Oh.” Milo looked down again, the gears in his eyes rotating as he processed the information. “You do not want me to leave the apartment, but I will have to go into work with you on Monday.”
“No,” Rowan said, grasping Milo’s hands this time to keep Milo’s attention on him. “That was my initial plan, but I didn’t tell the director I’d bring you in yet. I can start with my initial findings, just the data on the surge protector. No one needs to know about the rest yet.
“Although… there is a senior engineer we could contact.” Rowan remembered a man he had met at many a company Christmas party, one who had climbed the ranks years ago to the type of R&D Rowan had always hoped he could be a part of someday. Tony? Terry?
Troy. That was it. He always remembered Rowan and tried to make friends a little too vigorously, which made any kind of networking attempts feel even more awkward, especially when Rowan already sucked at it.
“We should message Troy. He always seemed like a good man. Trustworthy. A little familiar maybe, but I can put up with that if it helps us sort through anything we can’t figure out ourselves. We’ll keep it to just us and him until we know what to do.”
Milo was quiet for a beat, his eyes whirring once again with thought. “You mean Dr. Troy Palmer, correct? Shall I text him to meet with you tomorrow about a project you need his expertise on?”
Rowan almost laughed. Milo was real and alive but still an exceptional bot. “Yes, please. Thank you.”
“Of course. I will let you know when he responds. Oh.” Milo sat up straighter, head tilting, and in the blankness of his current expression, he seemed very much like the bot Rowan was used to. “He already responded. He said he is free any time tomorrow. He used multiple exclamation points.”
Now Rowan did laugh. “Like I said—familiar. Tell him ten. We’ll meet in his lab.”
“Done.” Barely a moment later, Milo continued. “He says he is looking forward to it. Does Dr. Palmer… have romantic interest in you?” Milo asked, instantly seeming more human as soon as he wasn’t performing a duty and could focus on Rowan.
Rowan still had hold of Milo’s hands. They had always felt human, but this was the first time Rowan had been in contact with Milo while also thinking of him as human. “I think he just doesn’t have many friends.”
“And he recognizes that you don’t either?”
Rowan grimaced. “Probably.”
All too quickly, it was just them and their connected hands, with no more questions forming in Rowan’s mind, despite that he should have about a million, and no more words spilling from Milo.
Rowan felt Milo’s hands shift in his grasp, enough to run his thumbs gently overtop Rowan’s, as he continued staring at him in apparent wonder.
Rowan thought he understood because he couldn’t stop staring at Milo either.
Then Rowan’s stomach growled, loudly, and a faint wave of low blood sugar made his head feel light. He had been too anxious earlier to eat much at lunch. “Shit. I didn’t realize how hungry I am.”
“I forgot to make dinner!” Milo cried, far more panicked than the situation warranted, and he tore his hands from Rowan to leap to his feet.
“It’s okay!” Rowan called before Milo could take off sprinting toward the kitchen like he seemed to intend. “It’s not the end of the world. There are leftovers, right?”
“Yes…” Milo confirmed, straightening his posture into work mode. “There is chicken piccata from Thursday night, two servings of chili from Wednesday night, low sodium turkey sandwich meat from—”
Rowan stood and held up a hand to stop the bot, preventing Milo from listing literally everything in the fridge that Rowan might consume.
“Chili is fine. It’s older anyway, and I can heat it up myself.
” He held Milo by the arm, since the bot had started to move the second ‘chili’ left Rowan’s lips.
“I might ask you to help around the house still, if it’s things you don’t mind doing, but consider tonight your night off. Okay?”
“Night… off?” Milo tilted his head. It was like the most adorable of puppies not wanting to displease its owner.
“It means you only do what you want to do, not what you think you should do to please me. Okay? And if you want anything, ever, just ask me.”
Milo’s mouth opened but then closed again, like he’d had further dissent or maybe another question, only to eventually answer, “Yes, Rowan.”
Rowan had waited so long to hear Milo say that without faltering.
“Good. Now, while I get myself something to eat, I do have a project for you. Can you keep backups in my personal Cloud, but on the tablet only have basic information about the surge protector and how it kept you safe last night? I’ll want to review all the information but try to keep anything off the tablet that might make someone question what really happened to you. ”
“Understood,” Milo said with a nod. “I am happy to help. I want to help.”
“Thank you.” Rowan realized he was still holding Milo’s wrist and released it with a start.
Milo just stood there smiling for a moment. “You know, Rowan, I realized something. You always say ‘thank you’ and ‘please.’ Not everyone does that with bots. So… thank you. Even before I was alive, you still treated me like something worth being kind to.”
The sincerity in Milo’s words, so different from how he had ever spoken or acted before, made Rowan’s eyes feel hot with emotion of his own. “I’m glad I did, Milo, even if you’d never been struck by lightning, because you were always something worth being kind to”
Milo smiled so impossibly wide and real again—because it was real. He was real.
“Once I’ve eaten, we’ll work on your back, okay?” Rowan said. “It really is pain you feel when I touch the damaged area, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Milo said with little thought, simply another tilt of his head and a small furrowing of his brow as his smile dropped. “I believe it can be classified as pain now.”
“Don’t worry,” Rowan assured him. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt.”
“Thank you, Rowan.”
Every time Milo said Rowan’s name, it warmed him further. Honestly, Rowan had no idea what to do about all this, but at least he could take things one step at a time, starting with Milo’s repairs.
Notes:
OMG I am so excited for the next chapter! Yes, there be some smexiness coming. I know you’ve been waiting for more after that BANGER of a first chapter. ^_-
More on the Superhero AU again soon too, but I gots some SMUT to write first!